February 2, 2003	Sunday	Ziqa’ad 29, 1423

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VEHARI, Feb 1: Doctors of the local district headquarters hospital went on strike on Saturday to protest against the treatment meted out to a colleague by a patient’s relatives on Friday night.

Sources said a heart patient, Mirza Karamat, was admitted to hospital’s emergency ward in serious condition. He was given first-aid and admitted to the medical ward where, patient’s relatives alleged, the doctor on duty was absent. According to the relatives, the doctor, Ahmed Nawaz, reached the ward only when the patient’s condition had worsened. Mr Karamat died during checkup.

Relatives of the patient allegedly beat up Dr Nawaz and misbehaved with paramedics, claiming that the patient had died due to the doctor’s negligence.

A spokesman for doctors, Dr Ahmed Tauheed Bhatti, told this reporter that the doctor was not responsible for patient’s death.

He further said that the strike was also a protest against the MS who had failed to protect the doctors.

Relatives of some patients at the surgical ward said many operations had been cancelled due to the strike. Mumtaz Ahmed of Old Bus-stand said his daughter was scheduled to have her appendix removed on Saturday, but the operation had to be cancelled.

According to Dr Ahmed, police had registered a case against the persons who beat up Dr Nawaz.

Meanwhile, the Pakistan Medical Association threatened an indefinite strike if the accused were not arrested within the next 24 hours.

This is the second such incident at the hospital. A few days ago, some Wapda employees misbehaved with doctors when a lineman died “due to a doctor’s negligence”. The DCO had EDO health Durr-i-Shehwar Hamdani hold an inquiry into the incident. The inquiry report has not yet been announced. However, according to MS Dr Riasat Ali, the duty doctor was responsible for the lineman’s death.